Is there a way to make a water valve that I can operate (open and close) using an electromagnetic field? So when their is a charge running through the coil, it pulls on a small lever or something that opens the valve so fluid can flow through and then close it when their is no charge? I got the idea from an digital camera I took apart. Part of the flash circuit had a mechanism so that when the capacitor was done charging after the user pushed down on a button, it would let electricity through into this little coil and unlock the little button so that it could pop up again... The biggest difficulty I can see with this is making it a water-tight device... any ideas?

Basically I just want something that can be opened and closed upon request of an MCU but if for some reason there is a power failure, it shuts the valve completely.... anyone know of something like that?

you could look into something like a coil gun (or rail gun)where there is a ball bearing inside a coil, when the coil is energised the ballbearing is pulled up by electro magnetism (youd have to make it strong enough to move against the water pressure, but not so strong it fires off). maybe if you add a lid to the top of the coil shaft to stop the ballbearing firing up into the tank

@Paul:I cant quite picture exactly what you mean... but as im thinking about it, ideas are flowing in It would be hard for me to machine though Ill give some more thought into using a BB and an EMF, thanks =)

@Admin:Yeah the Lee solenoids seem to be way to small (1-2mm orifices) for what I need... I was thinking more like 1/4" - 3/8"(5 - 9mm ish I think).And the other site... well... it uses words ive never heard before lol. Not sure what I was looking at for the most part >_<

@NotTooOilyThats a pretty good idea, im sure I can scrounge one up from some junkyard somewhere or something... Good thinking =) Ill definitely keep on the lookout And the thing about squishing a hose is that it would take a pretty decent force to squash a hose to cut off water supply completely(relative to the size of this device)... not really sure I can apply that idea to this particular project. Thanks though =)

well I was thinking of having a hose about 1/4" in diameter under not very high pressure... not sure what the actual measurement in PSI is but its a little less than your average water spigot on a house I guess.

I could use a servo on a regular valve but 1) If the system suddenly lost power while the valve was open, it stays open. 2) Thats kind of a bulky set up... I want to go as low profile as I can... number 2 is what has me leaning more towards a solenoid valve type of thing that I can just open and close but have it integrated into the same little container as the electronics... know what I mean?